Bridgegate, c 1904

Mitchell Library, Glasgow Collection, Postcards Collection

A postcard view of Bridgegate looking east towards Saltmarket in the early years of the 20th century.

The Bridgegate is thought to have existed from around 1100. It led from what was the foot of Saltmarket to the river ford where Glasgow's first bridge across the Clyde was built in the mid-14th century.

In the 17th century, Bridgegate was home to many of the city's merchants and to several of the city's finest buildings. During the 19th century, however, it became a slum where many poor Irish immigrants settled. In the 1870s the City of Glasgow Union Railway Co swept away many of the original buildings while building the approach lines to St Enoch Station. Some of the new tenements and warehouses that were erected in their place are on view here, as well as one of the barrows operated by second hand clothes dealers who spilled on to the Bridgegate from nearby Paddy's Market.

Reference: Mitchell Library GC Postcards

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning